Healthcare Technology

New Cancer Tools Help Patients Reconsider Chemo

2013-05-15T23:41:42Z

The May edition of Healthcare Global is now live!

Doctors are using new tools to help decide when their patients can completely skip harsh medical treatments like chemotherapy when treating cancer. The “one-size-fits-all” days of cancer treatment might be over.

"What is happening is a combination of new technology and more-targeted cancer drugs," said Dr Sandra Swain, medical director of the Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). "We've tried the approach of big, nonspecific treatments ... We have found that throwing chemo at patients has not (necessarily) cured them."

Chemotherapy drugs work by attacking all the cells in the body. They cannot distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells, causing harsh side effects like fatigue, loss of appetite, hair loss and weight loss.

Scientists have made significant progress with unlocking the genetic basis for a range of diseases since the human genome project was completed in 2003. This paved the way for genetic testing and drugs that block pathways that cancer cells use to grow. These kinds of targeted cancer drugs will sometimes prevent the need for harsher drugs like chemotherapy. They are being sold by the world’s largest drug companies like Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc, which earlier this year launched its first drug to treat leukemia.

Successfully treated in her 20’s for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 64 year old Laurie Levin faced a dilemma after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. Since the earlier radiation and chemotherapy raised her risk of developing heart problems or leukemia, a genetic test (which can cost up to $4k) revealed that her breast cancer was not likely to go into remission, infusing her with the confidence to have a lumpectomy and avoid chemotherapy altogether.

"It was like someone handed me my life back when I got those results," Levin says.

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The Oncotype DX test has cut the use of chemotherapy in U.S. breast cancer patients by 20 percent in the past eight years. The test analyzes genes involved in tumor recurrence. Genomic Health Inc, the maker of the Oncotype DX test also launched a similar test that measures if men with prostate cancer need to undergo surgery or radiation. While tests and studies can help clarify a treatment path, the costs associate can be extremely expensive, often costing thousands of dollars monthly. According to IMS Health, by 2016 the annual global sales of cancer drugs will nearly triple.

ASCO’s annual meeting in Chicago will highlight the “less is more” approach to cancer treatment. On Wednesday, ASCO released thousands of abstracts on new clinical trials of cancer treatments.

A study found that most men diagnosed with a common type of testicular cancer, Seminoma, did well after surgery and no additional treatment. The study was conducted in Europe and the cure rates for the disease have been rather high. In the U.S., about half of early-stage patients are still given radiation or chemotherapy.

"Opting for surveillance spares patients, most of who are young men, from the harmful side effects of chemotherapy and radiation without diminishing their chances for a long and healthy life," said ASCO's incoming president, Dr Clifford Hudis, in a statement.

Physicians say it is tricky to measure in data; There is a growing acknowledgment that less is more in terms of potentially toxic cancer treatments. The approach is especially important for young patients who will have many years ahead of them after beating an initial bout of cancer.

"We are right-sizing treatment," said Dr. James Mohler, chair of the department of urology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. With new technology comes risk and benefits and ‘right-sizing’ cancer treatment seems to be effective.

Mobile Technology Is Transforming Healthcare

2013-05-08T22:37:17Z

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Written by Pooja Thakkar

Read This Article In The May Edition Of Healthcare Global's Digital Magazine

Smart mobile devices and applications, working in concert with social networking, cloud computing, smart mobility and big data analytics, have surfaced to enable a new vision of providing healthcare everywhere with the potential to increase accessibility, contain costs and improve outcomes. The healthcare and life sciences industry is recognized as one of the top three fields along with consumer products and the financial services industry likely to propel mobile device growth in the next five years.

A few years back, Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and venture capitalist backing Facebook, Groupon, Skype, Twitter, Zynga and Foursquare, stated that we are on the verge of disruptive change that is altering the landscape with healthcare and education being next in line for fundamental software-based transformation.

Today, the entire healthcare ecosystem and its key stakeholders - physicians, providers, patients and payers are in the midst of a dramatic transformation. The adoption of mobile devices has already changed the way healthcare professionals engage in their daily work and care for patients. This change is reflective in the performance of professional healthcare students, while on internships and fieldwork placements, and ultimately in their work as healthcare providers.

The capabilities offered by mobile technologies are fast becoming appreciated by industry stakeholders, with variant devices, sensors, apps, and other programs being developed and created to help target chronic conditions, telemedicine and remote monitoring, patient data capture, electronic records, e-prescribing, and the parallel industries of fitness and wellness.

Key Drivers Of mHealth

Analysts’ forecasts estimate the potential value of the Mobile Health, or mHealth as it is commonly known, market to be approximately $4.6 billion as early as 2014. Three major trends already happening in healthcare lend themselves to the revolution in mobile technology:

Ageing Population

Firstly, ageing population and chronic illness are driving regulatory reform. Secondly, Public sector healthcare is seeking better access and quality, and it's looking to the private sector for innovation and efficiency. mHealth improves access and quality, and offers dramatic innovation and cost reduction.

Foundations Already Laid

The platform for mHealth is set with the foundations of industrialization of healthcare — electronic medical records, remote monitoring and communications already in place. ‘Care anywhere’ is already emerging.

Personalization

Healthcare, like other industries, is getting personal and rightly so. mHealth is offering personal toolkits for predictive, participatory and preventative care.

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Going Toe-To-Toe With The New Wave

According to a data, 78 percent of healthcare analysts believe that the healthcare/life sciences sector holds the greatest potential in stimulating mobile business model innovation through 4G technology.

Another recent survey conducted by mobile technology consulting firm Float Mobile Learning determined that healthcare professionals remain on the cutting edge of mobile technology users. According to the study, Physicians are 250 percent more likely than other consumers to own a tablet computer while 80 percent of surveyed physicians said they use smartphones and medical applications. 56 percent of surveyed physicians also said that they use mobile devices to help them make faster clinical decisions while 40 percent of surveyed physicians said mobile devices help them reduce the amount of time they spend on administrative work.

Technology’s Prescription For Healthcare: Dose Of Simplicity

When it comes to technological design, Apple emerges a clear winner. Doctors, want technology that’s easy to use, easy on the eye and that can travel universally with them from desktop to mobile and vice versa.

On September 2, 2011, Apple launched an ‘iTunes room for Healthcare’, listing 50 apps for healthcare professionals. Apps used on the iPhone or iPad are the most common technologies used in the clinical field.

There are a plethora of other free mobile medical apps for physician including Epocrates, Medscape, Doximity, Sermo, QuantiaMD, and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Some progressive physicians are also using these apps to connect with other physicians and they are joining an online social network to share stories, collaborate, and answer questions posed by other physicians.

Reaping The Benefits

Today’s physicians who have experienced the power of mobile technologies also prioritize the following technology benefits >>>

Freedom from the desk while working, in the morning hours, during lunch, and after dinner
Anywhere, anytime scheduling
Simple, intuitive experience
Ability to communication with patients
Ability to instantly power up and access information, so they can provide meaningful decisions
Ability to stay connected to other physicians and practice members – the “front and back” office
Optimized ease of login

Evolving Ecosystems

Many mobile and healthcare/life sciences companies are beginning to collaborate in high-profile alliances. A good example is the Continua Health Alliance where a growing collective of over 200 technology, medical devices, and healthcare companies have collaborated to accelerate the development of interoperable mHealth solutions. Another such example is, open mHealth consortium, which has established a flourishing ecosystem of multiple players across the mobile and healthcare industries to implement a roadmap for mHealth technology development.

A New Era Of Care

While there will always be a place for brick-and-mortar hospitals, mobile technologies will go a long way towards moving healthcare systems beyond facility-based care and as technology continues to reach new frontiers in medicine and medical interaction, it’s becoming clear that we’re entering a new era of healthcare or as some people are beginning to call it, Health 2.0.

Is Lap Band Surgery Worth The Weight?

2013-05-05T21:22:42Z

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Written by Adam Groff

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery, or lap band surgery, has an equal amount of support as well as opposition. And, because it’s one of the most popular forms of weight loss surgery next to gastric bypass, it gets a lot of attention.

READ THE APRIL EDITION OF HEALTHCARE GLOBAL HERE

So, what exactly are people saying about the surgery and should there be any cause for concern?

Pros

The benefits of lap band surgery cannot be ignored. In terms of the potential for weight loss, most patients who undergo the surgery cut their weight by 30 to 40 percent on average. And, many patients experience losses of up to half their body weight or more.

Because lap band surgery can be reversed and it’s considered one of the less invasive weight loss surgeries, it’s also thought of as less risky. In addition, the lap band can be adjusted any number of times without any further surgery.

It’s important to keep in mind that not all surgery results are the same from one individual to the next. A patient’s body mass index, health, and age all factor into the surgery’s weight loss potential.

Cons

A surgery’s drawbacks should always carry more importance than its benefits. This is especially true with weight loss surgeries. Although a patient’s stomach does not need to be cut or stapled with lap band surgery, complications can still arise.

First and foremost on the lap band con list is the ability for the band itself to slip or shift resulting in the puncturing of the stomach. This is unlikely, but cases have been reported. Likewise, infection and bleeding can occur on or around the location of the lap band.

As with any surgery, it’s important to discuss the risks with a doctor.

Although a patient is ready for weight loss surgery, their body might not be. An estimated 1 and 1,500 patients die from lap band surgery, so the proper pre-surgery measures should be taken.

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Statistics

According to the Alliance for Natural Health USA, 20 million obese adults meet the requirements for lap band surgery. Of those potential candidates, over 300,000 patients undergo lap band surgery each year.

And, although the main requirement for the surgery is that a patient have a body mass index of 35 to 40, the FDA just passed a law that allows the use of the device in less obese patients. This increases the candidate pool to roughly 15 million Americans.

Red Flags

With procedures costing as much as $20,000 and the lap band device ranging in the hundreds, lap band surgery is expensive. But, this doesn’t mean an amazing lap band surgery deal will result in the best surgery.

Don’t be fooled by the price tag. With more and more lap band doctors and surgery centers hitting the market, pricing is competitive. If the cost is too good to be true, then it probably means the doctor is less qualified or the lap band device used is inferior.

In addition, surgery centers that over-advertise and claim unbelievable success rates are usually more in it for the money than the patient. If a doctor cannot backup his or her surgical expertise or the surgery center has no reviews, it’s best to keep searching.

As with any weight loss surgery, getting the doctor’s vote and finding the right surgeon will always result in a healthier weight and a clean bill of health.

About The Author

Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of engaging content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health,online reputation management, and the ins and outs of weight loss surgery.

Steve Jobs & Apple: The Accidental Heroes Of Healthcare

2013-04-29T01:20:40Z

Steve Jobs and Apple products have changed the face of healthcare. Before the launch of the iPhone and later the iPad, the vast majority of healthcare data was stored in paper flies. The only technology used by doctors and medical professionals was clunky and cumbersome and very few enjoyed using it, often opting for paper equivalents. Aside from medical equipment, doctors and nurses avoided using technology during their working week. That changed when the first iPhone was launched and therefore many changes in the healthcare tech landscape – the mass uptake of EMRs, the increasing use of medical apps and virtual patient / doctor communication, to name just a few can be directly attributed to Apple.

READ THE APRIL EDITION OF HEALTHCARE GLOBAL HERE

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

A recent study by Manhattan Research found that 75 percent of physicians owned at least one Apple product, rendering the saying ‘an Apple a day keeps the doctor away’ quite untrue. A later study conducted by Vitera Healthcare also stated that 60 percent of doctors surveyed used an iPhone for work and 48 percent owned an iPad. Physician, by and large love Apple products and use them in a professionals environment.

Apple’s products sparked mass uptake of mobile devices and smartphones, and with that came an insurgence of applications, opening the doors for physicians to instantly access a world of medical information at point of care.

Apple: Training Future Physicians

Apple products have not only been utelised at point of care by trained medical professionals. Yale University's School of Medicine did away with paper materials for training upcoming physicians opting instead to provide its students with iPads and wireless keyboards.

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Facilitating Remote Healthcare

Apple products have facilitated the growth of remote healthcare; just a few months ago, the first ever hospital robot received FDA approval to deliver patient care, and guess what the main component of the device was… an iPad. The iRobot is fitted with an iPad as is the doctor. Via FaceTime the doctor can communicate with patients remotely, allowing him to visit more patients during a working day.

Remote healthcare can also be extended to rural location for example in Africa, where doctors can reach cut-off rural communities via video link to provide vital healthcare. Video healthcare has also been used during the aftermath of natural disasters, where specialist doctors can survey the scene much quicker than if they had to travel to the location.

The late Steve Jobs revolutionized the healthcare industry

Digital Imaging

Use of Apple's products goes beyond serving as a reference and communication tool, though. An application that allows radiologists to view MRIs as well as CT, PET, and SPECT scans on iPhones and iPads received FDA approval in 2011. More recently, the FDA cleared the way for privately held Welch Allyn to connect its portable ophthalmoscope to an iPhone for doctors to view retinal images using the company's app.

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iPatients

Apple perhaps also unwittingly opened new horizons for patients also. By April 2012, the App Store included more than 13,600 health-related applications. For example, Vital Art and Science recently gained FDA approval to sell its myVisionTrack product, which enables people with macular degeneration and other degenerative eye diseases to monitor their vision at home with their iPhone. The application automatically alerts a healthcare professional if visual function appears to be deteriorating significantly.

Another app, SkinVision, allows individuals to take pictures of moles and other skin conditions and receive an instant analysis of risk using an algorithm that dermatologists helped develop. SkinVision helps the person find a dermatologist if needed. The significance of this capability can be best understood by looking at melanoma survival rates. When melanoma is caught early, five-year survival rates can be as high as 97 percent. If not caught early, those survival rates drop to 20 percent or less.

No Signs Of Slowing Down

While it's true that Apple products aren't the only ones used in healthcare, the company's devices still dominate the industry. And these products ushered in a revolution in how medical professionals and patients access data and communicate with each other.

Now, many speculate that Apple's next major product could be an iWatch. If so, yet another transformation could occur as tracking of health information becomes even more convenient and transparent. The revolution continues.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 Enters The Healthcare Market

2013-04-23T04:01:33Z

Tablets are becoming increasingly popular in the healthcare industry and systems such as BYOD are fuelling uptake at an astonishing pace. According to a study carried out by IDG, 41 percent of employees in the US now own a tablet device, so it’s no wonder that a lot of healthcare business is conducted on tablet computers.

READ THE APRIL EDITION OF HEALTHCARE GLOBAL HERE

At Healthcare Global we have looked at the benefits tablet computers have bought to healthcare, specifically Apple’s iPad and Microsoft’s Surface, and now Samsung’s Galaxy Note is taking its place in the healthcare market with the launch of the Galaxy Note 8.0.

Galaxy Note In Healthcare

The Galaxy Note 8.0 comes with many great features for healthcare professionals; it comes in a number of different sizes to meet the users requirements and is very portable, which is imperative for healthcare professionals and physicians, and it has a number of security features which will appeal to healthcare professionals who may be using the device to access confidential patient information and medical records.

The Galaxy Note provides users with the ability to be more productive and efficient in their work and daily lives. Users will have access to a number of productivity features such as Multi-Window, Polaris Office, Air View, Awesome Note, Group Play and AllShare Play; they will also be able to download healthcare specific applications from the Google app store.

“With the introduction of the Galaxy Note, we defined a completely new category, and one that has been gaining momentum among businesses due to its flexibility in the workplace,” said Tod Pike, Senior Vice President at Samsung’s Enterprise Business Division. “Bringing the Note 8.0 to the Galaxy family of products will bring an additional option for business professionals looking for a device specifically built for the enterprise and flexible enough for a number of industry uses.”

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Unrivaled Safety Features

The Galaxy Note 8.0 incorporates SAFE (Samsung for Enterprise), which offers certified security features, standardized across devices, to ensure reliability. In addition, the Galaxy Note 8.0 features the innovative S Pen to create and edit professional quality work along with note-taking and signature capabilities. Both these features are exceptionally attractive to people working in the healthcare arena as they are dealing with confidential and sensitive information on a daily basis.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 transforms the patient experience by giving physicians a powerful tablet that allows access to patient information wherever it’s needed, integrating with a range of other healthcare solutions. The S Pen also enables physicians to take handwritten notes quickly and easily, saving time and ensuring more accurate input of information.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 went on sale in the US on April 11th 2013 and is set to become a big player in the healthcare tablet market place.

Are Video Games Changing The Way We Deliver Healthcare?

2013-04-22T00:17:27Z

The video game industry is one of the largest in the world. Video games capture users imaginations; can be distracting and wholly absorbing. It’s no wonder then, that healthcare physicians and experts have recognized value of using video games within the healthcare industry.

READ THE APRIL EDITION OF HEALTHCARE GLOBAL HERE

A recent study by the University of Utah suggests that video games could have a profound impact on the way we deliver patient care; the report also indicated that video games can help patients with cancer, diabetes, asthma, depression, autism, Parkinson’s disease and more. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, also indicates that video games can be therapeutic and are already beginning to show health-related benefits.

The report states that video games can be used to help with muscular strength and the regaining of movement after physical injury. They can also be used as a distraction tool to help take patients minds off pain and can even be used as an education tool for patients learning about coping with a new way of life post injury – this will be specifically beneficial for children and patients with learning difficulties. The games have also been credited with facilitating patient empowerment, understanding and compliance when it comes to care.

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Putting Theory Into Practice

The Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, US is one institution using video gaming technology to help provide better patient care. Video games are used alongside more traditional treatment methods to help distract children suffering from pain. The hospital has noticed that many patients are better placed to handle pain owing to the welcome distraction from video games. And these games don’t just serve as a distraction; they are specifically designed to work muscles, increase movement, regulate breathing or measure progress to help with the patients’ treatment as well.These video games also have the ability to collect valuable data about a patients capabilities and progress.

Roger Altizer, a Professor at the University of Utah is excited about how video games can be used to harness patients' brains to promote a positive attitude and empowerment.

“People play games because they are engaging. We are now starting to understand how games motivate us, and how to use this motivation to change health care,” says Altizer. “If games can help patients to feel better and motivate them to manage their healthcare or physical therapy, then I believe we will soon see the medical community saying, 'game on!'”

Grzegorz Bulaj, an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah, adds, “Research shows that playing video games increases levels of dopamine in the brain, but whether interactive technologies can mimic actions of pharmacological drugs remains unknown. Nonetheless, our study points towards video games becoming a part of personalized medicine, helping and bringing smiles to individual patients, doctors, nurses and physical therapists. Our paper shows these games offer great promise, but we also looked at the challenges of delivering safe, efficacious and fun-loaded therapeutic games.”

Video gaming is beginning to have a profound impact on the way we deliver healthcare. With the emergence of apps and mobile devices, it will be easier for developers to create a number of different games to help with numerous conditions and treatments. At Healthcare Global we believe that video games are going to be increasingly prevalent in patient care now and in the future.

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Healthcare Execs Are Increasingly Relying On Technology

2013-04-18T22:07:34Z

Healthcare executives are becoming increasingly more reliant on healthcare technology, according to new research from The Economist and RICOH Europe.

The study received 432 responses from healthcare executives and close to 93 percent said that they've become more reliant on technology and they're positive about the impact it's having on the industry. Approximately 70 percent said the increased use of technology has increased employees' creativity, while 65 percent agreed there is even more room for efficiency gains.

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Interestingly, 35 percent of respondents admitted that a computer-automated decision has cost their organization money recently. An accompanying infographic highlights the numbers.

The respondents said that technology challenges have included evolution that occurs more quickly than internal processes that support it, and poor connectivity. Human intuition, they added, remains necessary for diagnosing patients and developing new treatments and medicines. Only eight percent of those surveyed think human imagination or intuition is needed for management of patient records.

Human resistance to change and difficulty in adapting new technologies are prominent reasons why interacting with new technologies can be a hard transition, states the report. “While technology may augment human potential in some healthcare domains, in others it is being viewed as a means to free up people to perform other activities,” it stated.

READ THE APRIL ISSUES OF HEALTHCARE GLOBAL HERE

Online Engagement Rules & Advice For Physicians

2013-04-17T23:59:34Z

Social media and the internet in general is an invaluable tool for healthcare professionals and physicians, however it doesn’t come without its cautions and its challenges. According to a position paper from the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards published in Annals of Internal Medicine the internet represents “a new frontier in medicine” but it also “present numerous and novel challenges to professionalism.”

The paper outlined a new conceptual “framework for analysing medical ethics and professionalism issues” on the internet and provides recommendations for physicians on the use of email, blog, social media sites and more.

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Healthcare Global highlights some of the paper’s suggestions for online communication for safe and effective online engagement >>>

#1. When communicating with patients, physicians should “consistently apply ethical principles for preserving the relationship, confidentiality, privacy, and respect for persons to online settings and communications.”

#2. Pause before posting. The paper states that “the ease of use and immediacy of social media tools can lead to unintended outcomes or messages.”

#3. Avoid patient targeted Googling. Although there are numerous valuable educational resources available, the paper advises physicians to evaluate the quality of online content before giving recommendations to their patients.

#4. Never use the internet to complain about patients, name or no name. Physicians who use blogs, Twitter and other outlets to vent against patients are “disrespectful” and may “undermine trust in the profession.”

#5. Maintain clear and distinct professional and social identities online, but professional standards must be maintained in both spheres. Patients should not be “friended” by physicians and should not be included in the personal or social online interactions of physicians.

#6. Avoid medical humor. Medical humor, though intended for fellow professionals, can easily find a wider audience on the internet.

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Practice Fusion Launches Innovative Online Tool

2013-04-16T01:00:00Z

One of the biggest names in the growing world of healthcare technology is launching new online offerings for medical professionals. Today, San Francisco based Practice Fusion, which currently offers doctors free electronic medical records software, announced that it plans to launch a new site for booking doctor’s appointments.

Practice Fusion has attracted more than 150,000 doctors with its free web-based service for managing patient information, medical billing and other aspects of practice management, since its inception in 2007. However the health tech start-up is now opening up its information to the public for the first time, enabling patients across the US to search for doctors by specialty and location, read reviews from verified patients and instantly book appointments.

“This is a place where, as an individual patient, your health starts and ends,” said Practice Fusion Founder and CEO Ryan Howard.

The company said Patient Fusion lists information for more than 27,000 verified doctors in the US, includes 1.5 million verified doctor reviews (an average of 14 per doctor) and has 3 million open appointment slots available for April alone. While other doctor review sites like Vitals.com and Healthgrades, as well as Yelp, enable anyone — even those who have never seen the doctor — to leave reviews, Patient Fusion only allows patients it knows have visited the doctor to review their experience. ZocDoc similarly provides verified patient reviews.

Another benefit for patients who pick Patient Fusion is they’ll be able to get instant access to their personal health records. Patients using Patient Fusion will not only be able to book appoints online, but access digital lab reports, view real-time updates to their records and potentially benefit from other kinds of digital communication.

Furthermore, Patient Fusion is free to patients and doctors. It eventually plans to serve advertising (as it does on Practice Fusion) but its bigger play is aggregating even more data about patient conditions, medication, treatment outcomes and more. That data (de-identified and in aggregate) gives it an interesting view of health trends and could be valuable to pharmaceutical companies and other health care players.

According to a survey of health entrepreneurs conducted last November, Practice Fusion, which has raised $70 million in venture capital, was considered one of the health tech companies likely to file for an IPO next.

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Wristband Could Improve Hygiene In Health Institutions

2013-04-15T00:44:08Z

According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly two million cases of hospital-acquired infections are reported each year. Germs can easily be spread by doctors, nurses and technicians during routine contact or invasive procedures – the most adequate form of prevention is hand washing, however this can be hard to monitor.

Healthcare start-up IntelligentM has designed a new wristband to overcome the problem and monitor when and how well healthcare professionals wash their hands. The bracelet vibrates when the wearer has washed their hands well enough and lets employers monitor their use.

The bracelet uses radio frequency identification to read tags on sanitizing and washing stations. An accelerometer detects how long someone spends cleaning their hands then sends an alert. One vibration signals adequate washing, while three buzzes indicate more time should be spent at the sink.

The new wristband could improve hospital hygiene dramatically, and gives hospital employers a far better understanding of where improvements need to be made.

IntelligentM's wristband follows the wearer's motions to check whether they're adhering to proper hand hygiene standards. At the end of each shift, hospital administrators and staff can view collected data through a microUSB to monitor employee progress.

IntelligentM is targeting healthcare facilities with the device but is looking to expand to food service, another sector where hand washing can prevent the spread of diseases, according to MIT Technology Review.

Check out a video about IntelligentM here >>>

Data Security Increasing Concern Due To BYOD

2013-04-13T00:25:33Z

Many healthcare institutions are increasingly taking advantage of mobile health applications, which has in turn led to many firms adopting BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) initiatives in a bid to reduce cost and facilitate greater update with doctors and medical professionals. However, with this comes a need for added data security.

The uptake of mHealth apps has led to more healthcare firms and medical professionals sharing confidential imagery and content via mobile devices.

Andrew Brown, Executive Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics cautioned, “In an environment where BYOD is more and more common, healthcare organizations need to be especially vigilant to safeguard patient confidentiality while reaping the benefits of remote image access on multiple platforms. Ensuring regulatory compliance in healthcare remains critical.”

In the US, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires healthcare organisations to protect patient privacy and information. The follow-on low, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, allows the Department of Health and Human Services to levy fines on firms that fail to meet the required standards and protect patient information. Last year the HHS’s Office of Civil Rights levied million dollar fines against a number of large healthcare institutions for data breeches involving patient information.

“Smartphones and tablets have improved so much as image capture and display devices that they permit remote diagnosis with accuracy rates that approach in-person examination,” said Tom Elliott, Director of Emerging Markets at Strategy Analytics. Elliott said that in 2011, MIM Software received Food and Drug Administration approval for the use of its iOS viewing application for diagnostic x-ray and ultrasound viewing.

However, many of the data breaches reported to HHS involve the loss or theft of mobile devices containing patient information. So, healthcare firms have a substantial interest in protecting patient information, especially data and images that can be sent on mobile devices.

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mHealth-As-A-Service Could Change Mobile Health

2013-04-12T19:32:55Z

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) when it comes to cloud computing is often talked about, but what about mobile healthcare-as-a-service (mHaaS)? In a recent article, written by John Sung Kim, CEO of San Francisco based DoctorBase.com and published in PhysBizTech, the case is made that mHealth apps for medical provider organizations will soon evolve into app platforms whose functions can be ‘rented’ as a cloud-based service instead of building them as ‘one-off’ IT projects. Sung Kim goes on to say that mHaaS is the only way the mHealth industry will grow.

Sung Kim, who runs a mobile healthcare 2.0 company, believes the benefit of mHaaS is that it significantly decreases the costs and risks for medical provider organizations.

“Singularly built medical apps may suffice for certain tools such as drug reference information, but apps such as patient communications or mobile medical consultations require systems built on a multi-tenant architecture with the capability to scale and become extensible by third parties through application programming interfaces,” says Sung Kim, adding that “mHaaS is not only coming - it's the only viable way our industry will grow.”

Sung Kim says that mHaaS is an obvious pathway for mHealth provision. All one has to do is look at the cost and pricing structure of mHaaS versus building them internally as standalone apps, he says. He estimates the total first year cost to provider organizations for in-house or outsourced application development for a single app to be $181,000, while the total first year cost with mHaaS falls significantly to $18,000 ($1,500 per month in subscription fees to access and deploy a cloud-based mHealth app as a rented service with 1,000 customers on its mHaaS platform).

“In the current landscape of mHealth applications launched by medical provider organizations, there is much anecdotal evidence that suggests most of these initiatives fail to achieve their originally stated performance and cost objectives,” Sung Kim concludes. “Fortunately, the money and math add up quite nicely for those who can execute on the approaching mHaaS future.”

Mobile Carts Must Evolve

2013-04-11T21:36:02Z

Mobile computing carts commonly referred to as COWs (computers on wheels), are the most common form of “mobile” technology in hospitals. Mobile healthcare has come a long way over the past several years which begs the question; what happens to the COWs? Simply put, they evolve or they are passed over for a more convenient form of mobile technology.

In today’s high-speed environment, smartphones and tablets are making data accessible at the point of care. The adoption rate EHR’s has driven much of the demand for a real-time tool to access patient data. Small, easy to handle (and in most cases) touch screen devices make it easy for doctors and nurses to carry the device and update patient information in real-time. Even custom lab coats with special pockets to carry mobile devices are being designed to help with adoption of mobile technology in the health care industry. Todd Jackson the Executive Vice President of sales for Stinger Medical says,

“Clinicians continue to struggle completing real-time documentation. Instead, many complete what I call ‘near-time’ documentation. This is where a nurse or physician enters data into the EHR after the appointment — either in an office or at a mobile cart or fixed workstation in the hall. The reason? Their mobile carts don’t facilitate real-time data entry at the patient bedside. Historically, many mobile cart and fixed-mount solutions weren’t really designed around clinician workflows. This needs to change.”

The benefits of doctors and nurses being more mobile outweigh the negative factor, which can be small a margin of error when using the touch screens some of the mobile devices. While adoption of mobile technically is increasing worldwide, there is still a mentality of “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” filtering among some health care professionals.

Robotics and Health Care

2013-04-10T23:26:04Z

Robots are the future. This inspires both excitement and fear among health care professionals. The fear of being replaced by superior technology is widely discussed among doctors and nurses. The potential does exist, but to date the use of robotics in health care has barely made a dent. Worldwide, less than two per cent of surgeries are performed robotically; however, the surgical robotic platform may be growing.

Currently, surgical robots provide a highly experienced surgeon with skills they cannot humanly possess, with the help of 3-D visualization. The robots provide enhanced precision through minimally invasive incisions, ultimately improving patient care and minimizing recovery time. Intuitive is focusing on urology and gynecology, Mako Surgical for knees and hips, and Mazor Robotics in spine (and eventually brain) procedures.

Robotics promise precision while distancing health care professionals from radiation-emitting fluoroscopy during procedures. Hansen Medical, Sterotaxis and Corindus are targeting vascular and electrophysiology labs with this proposition. The really unique and innovative technology is to come and could be held in the minds of current students. The Raven surgical robotic platform was funded by the US Army in pursuit of telerobotic surgery taking a highly trained surgeon in one location performing surgery on a remote patient. The Harvard Robotics Lab is working with the Raven’s open source software paired with powerful computing capabilities. This will enable beating heart cardiac surgery using real-time 3-D ultrasound imaging to guide surgical tools in tandem with the moving heart.

According to Michael Witham, Robotics expert and mentor for the Saguaro High School Robotics Team #4146, “Robots are also being introduced into health care to function similarly as nurses. They can be configured with AI to learn text-book ways to aid in patient care, imagine the Jetson's Maid. They can walk, talk, interact, and are as smart as all the nursing textbooks combined into one Wikipedia brain. Technology is not far from making that a reality. The benefit to robotic technology is eliminating human error, which makes up for a lot of mistakes in hospitals.”

This subject is far too expansive for one article. Look forward to more information regarding robotics in health care.

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Data Analytics Improving Health Care

2013-04-10T19:30:03Z

Data analytics may be the key to improving operating efficiency, contain costs, and ensure quality care. The adoption of business intelligence and data analytics has been commonly accepted by CIO’s in a variety of industries, but the healthcare industry is still far behind in the acceptance of data analytics. Hospitals generally lack the appropriate resources needed to help turn clinical data into insight. The use of advanced data analytics in US hospitals was only at a 10 per cent adoption rate in 2011.

In the next five years, the used of advanced health data analytics is expected to significantly increase, according to a report Frost & Sullivan, conducted by the US Hospital Health Data Analytics Market with an estimated adoption rate of at least 50 per cent expect by 2016. With the increased use of EHR’s, data analytics seems like the next logical step in technological advancements in the healthcare industry.

The use of data analytics will positively affect every aspect of operations in a hospital. They will prove their value in analyzing revenue, operational efficiency, and staff performance. Advanced tools provide progressive real-time and predictive techniques, often provided by web-based systems that combined unrelated data across diverse care settings.

Among the varied uses for an advanced analytics tool, many care providers use analytics to identify who is at risk of a hospital admission. Richard Merkin, president and chief executive of Heritage Provider Network says,

"Hospitalizations are very expensive and cost this country a lot of the resources we're using in health care. Imagine if you could effectively predict who was going to be hospitalized. You could reallocate resources to prevent unnecessary hospitalization and put those resources to use for cure rather than care." Heritage is currently sponsoring a competition to figure out the best algorithm to identify which patients are likely to be sent to a hospital within the next year, based on patient data. The contest ends April 2013 and the winner will get a handsome $3 million prize.

Heritage is not the only company exploring the use of data analytics tools to better patient care and to reduce overall costs. Health Management Associates, Inc. is working with partners on predicting readmission across the 70 hospitals they operate in the US. Looking for patterns in their own patient and operational data they are able to rank the likelihood of readmission. Additionally, they are trying to predict the demand for services, to help better hospitals with staffing levels.

The use of analytics will help health care providers offer more efficient preventive care. "There's a huge amount of waste in the system," says Dr. Nease, the Express Scripts chief scientist. "Advanced analytics allows you to be much more sophisticated in where you intervene and with what."

Related Articles on HCG:

EHR Adoption Moving Quickly in US

Additional Resources:

Data Analytics Makes Healthcare More Intelligent